Category: Friday Five

Favorite Indoor Workouts

I’m linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up for WHAT?!, and Mar from Mar on the Run. This week’s Friday Five theme is Favorite Indoor Workouts.

Favorite Indoor Workouts | FrenchFryRunner.com

I really like a lot of different types of exercise, so I thought I would share a few that I’ve been loving lately as I try to own the day every day.

  1. Body Pump. I’ve been going to pump classes for about a month and a half (I think), and I’ve fallen in love with it! It’s a great way to get started with weight training, and the class atmosphere is just fun and not intimidating at all. I’ve seen major results in my short experience with it, and I really recommend it to anyone looking to dive into more strength training.
  2. Yoga. Well, I just love yoga. It’s a great workout, especially Ashtanga or power yoga, and it’s a great way to work on your flexibility and your attitude. Yoga provides a way to slow down and focus on the moment with no judgment and to just be where you are.
  3. Treadmill. Yeah, I know. A lot of people hate the treadmill, but I don’t really, especially when I make my workout interesting. I like to warm up with 5 minutes walking and then move into my workout. Lately I’ve been doing shorter easy runs (30-40 minutes) and then picking up the speed by .1 mph each 30 seconds to one minute of the last 5 minutes before a 5-minute cool-down. Good stuff. It also helps that my favorite treadmill at the gym overlooks the pool, which distracts me from the feeling of not actually going anywhere. Nothing like watching older folks do Aqua Zumba, eh? 😉
  4. Swimming. I’m a fairly new swimmer, so my workouts aren’t anything crazy. I don’t have a tri on my schedule right now, so I haven’t been swimming a ton, but I do love it when I get to the pool. I swim for about 30 minutes and call it good. It’s short but effective since I’ve been trying to focus on form.
  5. Cycling/elliptical. I’ve been having trouble with my plantar fasciitis, so I’ve been interspersing cycling and elliptical into my training to cut down on my chance for injury. I just hop on the bike or elliptical crank up the resistance and go for 30-45 minutes. And the ellipticals at my gym have built-in TV, so it’s fun to watch The Chew or whatever while I’m plugging along. Good times.
Incline elliptical
How many times can I use this photo, I wonder.

 

Do you watch TV while you exercise?

Do you have a favorite treadmill/machine? Favorite running route?

Favorite dessert?

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Sharing my favorite indoor #workouts for #FridayFive with @eatprayrundc @yousignedup & @marmaone1. What's your favorite? Share on X

 

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I’m also linking up with Jill Conyers’s Fitness Friday and B.J. for #FitGeekFriday. Be sure to check out the hosts’ pages and find other fun blogs to read!

 

Friday Five: About Me

I’m linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up for WHAT?!, and Mar from Mar on the Run. This week’s Friday Five theme is Five Things about Me.

Five Things about Me! | FrenchFryRunner.com

It was kind of hard to come up with things that ya’ll would think are interesting, but I’ve done my best:

  • I’m an amateur floral designer. I took a class in college, which I loved, and I’ve done a wedding will be doing another this spring. The Engineer always buys me unarranged flowers so I can make up my own designs. Some people might think that’s weird, but I think it’s the best.
  • I’m an excellent cook. (Toot my own horn much?) 🙂 Both my parents are great cooks, and they taught me when I was a kid. I’ve loved to cook ever since, was a food prep teaching assistant in college, and have a book being published: The Cheese Lover’s Cookbook (CFI, May 2015). I love making up new recipes and trying new foods too. The Engineer is a better baker, though, but I’ve been known to make killer cupcakes.
  • I have really nice handwriting. Once upon a time in elementary school, my teacher said she couldn’t read my handwriting because it was too sloppy. I took that personally and practiced all the time. Now I have excellent penmanship. Twenty years of practice will do that to you. 😉
  • I’m a linguist. My bachelor’s is in English linguistics, and I love dialectology and sociolinguistics. (I also speak German and a little bit of Spanish and French. And obviously I speak English.)
  • I collect journals. I love writing in journals, but I have a habit of buying blank journals too. I have a box of blank ones I really need to fill up! (I also collect chapstick.)
Join us for Friday Five: Five Things about Me (Just in case you were dying to know) @FrenchFryRunner Share on X

What’s something interesting about you? (I’m sure everything!)

What do you collect?

Baking or Cooking?

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London: My Five Favorites

I’m linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up for WHAT?!, and Mar from Mar on the Run. This week’s Friday Five theme is Five Things I Like about My Favorite City. To be honest, I have several favorite cities because I love to travel, but I thought I would highlight my favorite city I visited 2014: London, England. I was only there for 4 days, but it made a serious impression on me. I will be going back soon! A close second is Mainz, Germany. Gotta throw that in there. 🙂 

Five London Favorites (1)

 

Here goes:

  • Architecture (hello, Buckingham Palace!). I’m just amazed at the level of detail on all the buildings in London. None of them have that thrown-together, strip-mall feel.

 

Gates of Buckingham Palace
Gates of Buckingham Palace
  • Food! A lot of people say they don’t like the food in England, but there’s enough of a variety to make everyone happy. We had fish and chips a couple times, delicious Indian food, and so many toasties from Pret a Manger, a delicious UK fast food chain.
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Traditional English Breakfast
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Yummy gelato at Scoop
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Fish Cakes and Chips

 

  • So much history! Everywhere you look in London, there are monuments, plaques, statues, or buildings that commemorate a historical event. We visited Westminster Abbey and were overwhelmed by the history–in a good way. We saw the coronation chair (or King Edward’s Chair), the chair in which all the monarchs from 1296 have been crowned. We also saw the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, which was amazing. Another cool thing to realize is that American history and British history are the same until a certain point. It makes me feel more connected.
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It’s me and the Crown Jewels!
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Westminster Abbey

 

  • Activities and tourist stops. From the London Eye to the Tower of London to the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to West End shows, there is so much to see and do in London. We had a blast dipping our toes into the culture that is thriving there.
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Shakespeare’s Globe

 

 

The London Eye!
The London Eye!
  • Museums! Most of the museums in London are free, so we were able to go to a few, which was awesome. We went to the British Museum (hello, Rosetta Stone!), the National Gallery (Monet, van Gogh, and Rembrandt, oh my!), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (so cool!). We saw so much awesome art, exhibits, and displays, and just loved it.
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Monet’s Japanese Bridge

 

I really could go on and on about London, and it’s hard to pick 5 of my favorite things. I will say this, though: if you haven’t taken the trip across the pond, do it. You won’t regret it.

Honorable Mentions

  • San Francisco, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Mainz, Rheinland-Palatinate, Germany
  • St. Louis, MO

 

What’s your favorite city? What draws you to that city?

Where are you traveling next?

Don’t forget to link up at You Signed Up for WHAT?!, Mar on the Run, and Eat Pray Run DC.